Sometimes a leashed child is a safer child

LAS VEGAS — I think I was in college when I first saw a mother with her child on a leash.

I was horrified. How could this mother have so little control of her child that she had to resort to a leash?

Here I am 15 years later, and I am that mother who has leashed her child.

Aubrey, my 2 1/2-year-old, is able to unfasten her stroller straps, even while moving, so that’s not a great option for getting around. Instead I try to let her walk with me, but she darts away from me in public so fast I can’t catch her.

Explaining the rules doesn’t help.

“Do not run away from Mommy. Do you understand?”

She nods and gives a naughty little smile and minutes later she does the opposite.

In clothing stores, she runs and hides inside the circular racks. Another time, she ran out of a store while I was paying and was almost in the parking lot.

So a few weeks before our recent vacation, I did the unthinkable: I bought a toddler leash.

I looked at several different styles and decided on one that looks like a monkey backpack. The tail hangs down and becomes the leash for the worried parent.

The girls and I were getting ready to travel on a cruise, and I had been having nightmares about Aubrey jumping off the ship or getting lost in the airport.

Just before the trip, I get Aubrey to try on the leash and tell her that this is her monkey and rave about how cute it is. I grab the monkey’s tail and say things like “Go horsey, go.” (They didn’t have a horse leash.)

She loves it and thinks it is a game. I follow her around the house as she runs, giggling and completely unaware that this game is for her own safety.

Now my 4-year-old is jealous because she doesn’t have a monkey. I explain to her that I am not having her on a leash, too. She has to be content to chase her sister around while she holds the leash.

This could work out well.

The day of the trip comes and after we are awaiting a connecting flight, I snap the monkey on and the game ensues. Around the row of chairs she goes.

And then she’s done.

“No monkey!” “No monkey!”

We take it off and chalk it up to boredom in the airport.

The first port call of the cruise, we attempt to put the monkey on again, but Aubrey fights it. She wants nothing to do with the monkey.

She screams and throws a tantrum as we are in line to get off the ship. She tosses the monkey. I decide to try later.

I get a few stares from people and even some nodding looks. I’m sure they are wondering why I am treating my toddler like an animal. Why can’t I control her without a leash?

But I don’t really care. This is about Aubrey’s safety, and if the leash helps keep her from running away, then I’m all for it.

Parenting expert and author Michele Borba said she isn’t a fan of leashes because my goal in these Aubrey-run-away situations should be to teach self-control, waiting and listening to Mommy.

“But, I always have one rule: safety first and use that as the above-everything parenting principle. In your case, Atlantic Ocean or your child, you choose the kid,” Borba said.

She suggests using the “red light, green light” or “freeze” game to teach a child to stop in certain situations.

Borba also says only to use urgency in your voice in emergencies, so children know parents are serious.

Meanwhile, the island we are on is crowded, and cars are zipping in and out while Aubrey walks along the sidewalk.

The monkey is needed. She doesn’t agree.

At one point during the trip, the monkey is thrown from a taxi and ends up in a mud puddle.

He sat on a shelf the rest of the trip, and today sits at the top of my toddler’s closet. He hasn’t been used since the trip.

At least I tried.